An Update with many pictures and few words

So last week, a friend called me and asked if I wanted to go to a fertility festival... and of course how could I resist. The town where this was located was only an hour and a half outside of Tokyo , so it wasn't much of a hassle anyway. And this was probably our first day of nice weather since I had been back.Some Taiko drummers!
This place was packed with people, especially foreigners (which is a bit disappointing where you are looking for an authentic japanese festival) but what do you expect at a festival devoted to phallus's.
A Japanese cartoon mascot reimaged as a phallus.
A statue at the shrine we visited.
Proof that it was a nice sun shiny day, and look at the cherry blossoms in the background, unfortunately the temperature has since dipped down and killed all the blossoms.
Big wooden phallus.
Shinto shrines normally tie those ropes around trees, but in this case, they are wrapped around a penis.
You can buy phallic candles, candies, vegetables, hot dogs, statues, etc.
A Daikon Radish carving competition, later on in the day, these were auctioned off.
The festival also feature a parade through the streets, this place was packed as they carried 5 or so shrines through the crowds with music playing and sun beating down on us. Somehow this day really made me glad to be back in Japan, if only because I don't know many other places where I could get the same experience.

Alright, I'm off to prepare for class